Palestinian boys watch sea gulls fly during a storm in the Al-Shatee refugee camp in Gaza City on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 (photo credit: AFP/MOHAMMED ABED)

Heavy rains and high winds swept Israel Tuesday night and through Wednesday as a major winter storm descended upon the country. Hail and snow were reported in the north from early Wednesday, and spread to elevated peaks in the center of the country by mid-morning, with brief power outages reported in various parts of the country. Despite predictions of heavy snowfall in the capital, Jerusalem saw only a sporadic sprinkle, with more expected overnight Wednesday-Thursday. School was canceled in the Golan Heights, West Bank, and around Jerusalem for Thursday due to inclement weather. A 13-year-old was killed in a car accident on an icy road after a bus driver lost control and slammed into a nearby vehicle, and several people were treated for various weather-related injuries, including hypothermia. The Times of Israel liveblogged the weather through Wednesday here.

Wind damage reported as cities brace for snow

Bearing violent winds, intense rain and hail, a severe winter storm descended on Israel overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday. Blackouts are reported in major cities as trees – and in Netanya, parts of a building under construction – are blown about in the storm winds.

The initial damage comes from strong winds. In Petah Tikva a tree falls on a bus carrying passengers. No one is hurt. Limited blackouts are reported in parts of Haifa, Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Acre, Netanya and some Galilee towns, as well as in Modi’in.

Some 30 cm (1 ft) of snow is expected to fall Jerusalem starting in the afternoon. Snow has already been falling in the Golan Heights and Upper Galilee since last night.

The big news for parents (and even more so for kids): schools, kindergartens and day cares are closed throughout the mountainous regions of the country, especially in the Galilee and Jerusalem areas.

Freezing temperatures expected in mountains

Alongside the dramatic photographs and dire warnings, here are some hard numbers from the weather reports showing freezing temperatures expected in mountainous Jerusalem and Safed, but warmer temperatures along the coast and in the south.

Thunderstorms and rains are expected throughout the country, with snow in the northern mountains early Wednesday, reaching the Jerusalem area by late morning and possibly the northern Negev by evening.

Syrian refugees brace for storm

While many in the region prepare for the coming storm by unpacking flashlights and stocking up on canned goods and extra blankets, some are not so lucky. The Washington Post reminds us that millions of Syrian refugees are going into the looming winter storm without basic provisions:

As the driving rain turned to icy sleet and a blustering wind rocked their flimsy tent, Umm Khalil and her four children shivered, from fear as much as the cold. A major storm was descending on Lebanon, and along with hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees bracing for the onslaught, she worried the family would lose the few possessions they had left.

Or perhaps worse. Two Syrian babies died of exposure in Lebanon’s last storm, in November. Such is the ferocity of this one, which is expected to bring snow and gale force winds to the areas where most of the refugees live, that aid agencies as well as refugees worry that people’s lives could be at risk.

“I’m afraid the tent will collapse on top of us. I am afraid of how cold it will get,” Umm Khalil said Tuesday. “Most of all I’m afraid for my children.”

Winter storms are sweeping many parts of the world this week, includingthe United States. But there may be few people who will suffer more than the millions displaced by the war in Syria, confronting this fourth winter without adequate shelter from the biting cold weather descending on the region.

The decision should make it easier for residents to hole up with family and friends elsewhere in the city without worrying about parking meters. Of course, it also may be tied to the fact that the city won’t be able to deploy its parking inspectors to give out tickets until the storm passes.

Tel Aviv sees trees, traffic lights felled by violent winds

According to a count by the Ynet news site, Tel Aviv alone has seen 47 trees, 12 traffic lights, 15 street signs and four sections of buildings under construction uprooted, overturned or broken by the violent winds sweeping Israel’s coastal cities.

17,000 Israelis lose electricity

Some 17,000 Israelis lost power for an average of two hours since the start of the storm early Wednesday. Blackouts were experienced in parts of Jerusalem, Netanya, Petah Tikva, the Sharon area north of Tel Aviv, Afula, the northern West Bank and the heart of Tel Aviv.

Thus far, electricity has been restored within two hours of the blackouts, the Israel Electric Corporation says.

Heavy snow blankets Lebanon, Syria

The storm dumped rain and hail on Lebanon’s coast and heavy snows in the mountains and central Bekaa Valley, where gas stations, banks, schools and most shops closed.

While the storm disrupts life for everyone, it is proving particularly trying for the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who live in tents and makeshift shelters in the Bekaa.

A Syrian boy throws snow from the top of his tent at a refugee camp in Deir Zannoun village, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Near the town of Anjar, men used brooms and sticks to try to clear the heavy snow from the tops of refugee tents, fearing the weight might cause the shelters to collapse. Inside the tents, adults could be seen huddling around the wood burning stoves to try to keep warm.

In Syria, snow blanketed Qassioun Mountain, which overlooks Damascus. The snowfall also brought traffic to a near standstill in the capital, Damascus, and prompted the Education Ministry to shutter school and universities for two days.

Highway 443 closed once again

Jerusalem’s main northwestern artery is now closed, police say

The road was briefly shut at 10 a.m. as snowfall began in the hills northwest of the capital. Minutes ago, at noon, it was closed again, apparently for the remainder of the snowfall, which is expected to last at least a day.

200 homeless Jerusalemites lack shelter

Jerusalem’s municipality estimates that 200 homeless residents, known to city workers, are seeking shelter from the storm.

Most can’t be located, according to Army Radio, because they have left the streets for shelters or other locations to escape the storm.

“We’re going to search for them,” a social worker with the Elem organization tells Army Radio. “Some are in abandoned buildings. Some don’t understand what’s happening. Some have to be convinced” to come in from the cold, she explains.

“We sometimes reach the point where we are borderline dragging them [indoors] by force. We really don’t want anyone to die from exposure.”

Syrian refugees in Lebanon blanketed by snow

Syrians throw snow at each other at a refugee camp in Deir Zannoun village, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian man removes the snow from his tent at a refugee camp in Deir Zannoun village, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Lebanese army soldier holds an umbrella as he walks on a main road covered by the snow, in Al-Marj village, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian boy looks out through his tent door covered in snow at a refugee camp in Deir Zannoun village, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian boy throws snow from the top of his tent at a refugee camp in Deir Zannoun village, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (Photo credit: AP/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian woman and her son remove the snow from the top of their tent at a refugee camp in Deir Zannoun village, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (Photo credit: AP/Hussein Malla)

Why are cars getting through a ‘closed’ highway 1?

Reports are conflicted for the past two hours over whether highway 1, the main road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, is closed.

Police announced its closure in the last hour, but drivers are still coming through the road.

At a guess, the conflicting reports may suggest that police are announcing the closure before it is strictly necessary — snowfall has begun, but above-zero temperatures in the Jerusalem hills are preventing buildup — to empty the highway as much as possible before temperatures drop and the real closure goes into effect.

Sea of Galilee level rises from rainfall

The Israel Water Authority reports that the massive amount of rainfall feeding streams across northern Israel has raised the water level of the Sea of Galilee by a full two centimeters since this morning, and six centimeters since last Saturday.

Since midnight on Tuesday, northern Israel has received 6-8 cm of rain. The center of the country has received 3-4 cm of rain since the rain started this morning, according to Ori Shor, the spokesperson of the Water Authority.

Two die of exposure in Lebanon snows

In eastern Lebanon, security officials say a Syrian shepherd, Ammar Kamel, 30, and a 7-year-old boy, Majed Badawi, died in the storm Wednesday as they made the dangerous trek in rugged mountains covered with snow from Syria to the Lebanese border town of Chebaa.

— AP

A Lebanese man walks on main road covered by the snow, in Chtoura town, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Snowfall brings respite in Syrian civil war

In Syria, the guns fall silent as snow falls in Aleppo and the capital Damascus and government warplanes remain on the ground because of bad visibility, AP reports.

Snow blankets Syria’s Qassioun Mountain, which overlooks Damascus. The snowfall also brings traffic to a near standstill in the city and prompts the Education Ministry to shutter schools and universities for two days.

Photos emerging from the war-torn city show residents taking a rare respite and playing in the fresh snow.

People play with snow accumulated on a vehicle in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (AP Photo)

Ramat Gan safari animals seek shelter from storm

The Ramat Gan safari closed to the public with the start of the heavy rains this morning. Workers moved the hay intended to feed the safari’s large herbivores under awnings so the animals may feed out of the rain.

“The hay is more than food, it also helps the animals stay warm,” the safari said in a statement.

Many animals took advantage of the awnings to escape the storm.

“Even many of the hippopotamuses left the lake in order to hide under the awnings,” the statement explains.

Jerusalem hospitals on heightened snow alert

Hadassah’s two Jerusalem hospitals, at Ein Kerem in the city’s south and on Mount Scopus in the north, are in a heightened state of readiness to receive injured or ill people during the storm, the organization says.

As the heaviest snow yet begins to fall on Jerusalem, the municipality says emergency crews will open the roads to the city’s hospitals before any others.

Snow is falling! Please do not travel unless absolutely necessary. We will first clear emergency routes to hospitals & then main roads

As snow picks up, roads closed again

Traffic police continue to coordinate road closures with the fluctuating weather, shutting down highway 1 between the Sha’ar Hagay and Sakharov junctions, and highway 443 from Ofer to Maccabim interchanges, as the snow picks up.

Jerusalem to decide on schools in the morning

The Jerusalem municipality will decide whether to open schools in the capital on Thursday morning at 6 a.m.

The Education Ministry says the matriculation exam in Hebrew literature will take place tomorrow as planned. A later date for the test will be announced for students of high schools that are closed due to the weather, it says.

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